Breaking Free
by MissyMo2005
Summary: Sequel to Picture Perfect.
1. Chapter 1

Three months. Three whole months had passed in what had somehow managed to feel like a lifetime, but also passed in a blink of an eye. It had been different somehow, Afghanistan, in a way she couldn't put her finger on. But then again, maybe it was just the fact that she was a completely different person than she had been when she'd come on tour with two section.

She'd been relieved to find that actually, she did still love her job and she hadn't been doing it just to get away from Artan. She'd been worried that being away from home wouldn't be such a draw now she didn't need to avoid him, but there was still some strange appeal in living out of a Bergen in the middle of the desert, even if she did miss having two section there with her.

She had found herself missing Captain James though, more than she'd imagined, and to begin with she'd questioned if she'd made the right decision taking the tour. She could see it now, if she closed her eyes, how easily things would've slotted into place if she'd stayed. He would've taken her out for dinner, whisked her off her feet, and she would gladly of let him. She'd got visions in her head of days out with Sam, and visits to his parents, everything being just perfect.

And that was exactly why she'd taken the tour.

The idea of getting into another relationship terrified her. Even with Charles, who she knew full well would never treat her the way Artan had. She'd realised, lying on her little camp bed one night when she couldn't sleep, that what she was most afraid of was Artan being right- that sooner or later Charles would realise she wasn't good enough and she'd end up getting her heart broken all over again. After that she'd started dodging his Skype calls, she didn't know what to say to him so it was just easier not to speak to him at all.

The only problem was that her tour was over, she was sitting in the bloody plane about ten minutes out from Brize Norton where he was supposed to be meeting her,if he hadn't got fed up and found someone else that was, and she still hadn't got a bloody clue what she was going to say to him. She'd had the best part of eight hours sitting there, going round and round in circles in her head, arguing with herself. Part of her wanted to run into his arms in the hope of living happily ever after, but there was another part of her that was petrified of what the consequences of that might be.

She could feel the plane starting to descend towards the airfield, and her stomach flipped again. At this rate she was actually going to be sick, she didn't think she'd ever felt so nervous in her life. Facing the Taliban was preferable to this. Then again, maybe he'd got bored of her and found someone else- after all she had told him not to wait around for her- he might not be waiting for her at all. The thought didn't make her feel any better, in fact the thought of him being with someone else made her feel even more sick.

Minutes later the plane screeched to a halt, and they were back on English soil. Her body was stiff and sore as she made her way off the plane, shivering as she was met with the cool English weather, a far cry from the burning Afghan sun she'd left behind. She pulled her collar up against the rain, walking a little faster.

Her heart was pounding in her chest as she walked across the tarmac towards the terminal, and she wondered if she was going to have a heart attack before she got there. She could see the crowd of families waiting inside, anxious to see their loved ones again, but she couldn't make out the faces to see if he was in there or not.

As she walked inside, her eyes scanned the crowd and she couldn't see him, her stomach dropped in disappointment. That was when she realised just how much she'd wanted him to be there, no matter how terrified she was of how it might end, she just wanted to throw her arms around him and hold on forever. But she'd screwed up, clearly. What had she been expecting? She'd barely said two words for him for a month, why would he turn up for her?

"Hi." His voice came from behind her and sent a shiver up her spine. "Did you miss me?" He winked as she turned to face him.

"I didn't think you'd be here." She spluttered, trying to regain her self control. She'd been so crushingly disappointed not to see him standing there, and now having him in front of her had thrown her completely off balance.

"I…" She quickly realised she was at a loss for words.

"Molly Dawes, speechless? Well, this is a first." He smirked. He was standing close enough that she could smell his aftershave and the slightest hint of coffee on his breath. She was tempted just to throw herself into his arms there and then, screw her earlier worries.

"I wasn't expecting you to be here." She choked out eventually.

"What, because you've been avoiding my calls for a month?" He asked, the smile leaving his lips as he suddenly turned serious. The truth was he'd been wondering for days if he should make the journey down there or not, wondering if she'd actually be pleased to see him.

She shifted uncomfortably. "I wasn't avoiding you, I just…" she didn't have a good excuse, because he was exactly right, she'd been avoiding him plain and simple.

"I didn't know if I should come or not." He looked awkward now. "I rang your mum and she said that they weren't going to be able to come and get you, and I wasn't sure if you'd be able to get home or not. You don't have to come with me if you don't want to." He held his breath, waiting for her answer and praying she wouldn't say no to going with him. He'd been hoping she'd run off the plane and straight into his arms, that was what had kept him going through the last three months, but clearly things weren't going to be that simple.

"Don't go, please." The words tumbled out of her mouth. She was so god damn confused about what she wanted. It had been easy to tell herself that she needed to be alone when she'd been a few thousand miles away from him, but now they were only a few feet apart it was a lot, lot harder to try and convince herself. "Just… can we not do this here?" She pleaded, looking around at all the families reuniting around them.

He nodded, although his expression was still tense. "Come on, my cars just outside." He picked up her bergen and threw it over his shoulder, leaving her awkwardly trailing behind him as he strode off.

"You don't have to drive me all the way back to London." She frowned as he climbed into the driver's seat of the car and set the sat nav. "You can just drop me at a train station. I'll be fine."

He shook his head. "It's fine, I've got all day." He shrugged. "Besides, I was hoping you might actually talk to me if you're trapped in a car with me."

There was silence for a moment, only broken by the sound of his indicator as he pulled out of the car park, as Molly desperately tried to think of something to say.

"I wasn't ignoring you, I was…" shit, what was she going to say to him?

"Avoiding me?" He suggested.

"I panicked alright." She admitted. "I was frightened of what might happen if I let myself be happy, so I thought maybe it would be easier to just stop."

"What do you mean?" He glanced over at her trying to read her expression. Maybe trapping her in the car hadn't been such a great idea, he couldn't look at her while he was driving to try and read her expression. Maybe he could find a service station and pull in there?

"Eyes on the road." She snapped, pointing ahead of them at the empty road. "I don't know okay, I'm a fucking mess, that's the honest truth in all of this. I'm not sure I'm ready to be happy, the thought of it scares me."

"I still don't understand." He frowned. He wasn't sure if he was just being really stupid or if what she was saying really didn't make any sense.

"I'm not sure I'm ready, for whatever this is." She gestured back and forth between the two of them. "And the problem is I want it so, so badly, and I'm afraid that when it doesn't work out I'm going to end up being the one that gets hurt." Her voice dropped to almost a whisper.

"How do you know it's not going to work out if you don't give it a chance?" He asked, stealing another quick glance over at her. She was staring out of the window, so she didn't see him.

"Because I mean just look at you for god's sake!" She almost shouted at him. "You don't get to walk away from someone like Artan and end up with someone like you. I mean seriously, you've just driven all the way down here on the off chance that I might want a lift home, which is miles out of your way. I don't deserve someone like you!"

"Don't say that." He shook his head. "I want to be with you Molly, I told you that before you left for this tour and nothing's changed while you've been gone. I've been counting down the days until you were back in the hope that we might get to give things a go. Of course I was going to be there when you got back, I told you I would. I know that things aren't going to be easy, and that's okay, it doesn't have to be perfect all the time, I just want us to at least try." He pleaded.

She turned to look at him, meeting his eye for a second before he looked back at the road ahead. "I'm not saying no, okay." She said slowly. "I'm just saying, that I thought three months on tour would let me clear my head and sort everything out, but now I'm back everything just seems so…, I don't know, overwhelming I guess."

He nodded. "I'm not saying you have to commit to anything right now Molly, I just want to know that you're willing to give me a chance. I'll be there for you however you want me to, a friend if you want or something more. Just promise me you're not going to start ignoring my calls and disappear on me again?"

"Promise." She agreed softly. "Thank you, for coming to get me, would've looked like a right twat standing there all by myself with no way to get home." She added, a smile playing on her lips.

He laughed quietly. "Now, we couldn't let that happen could we? If two section ever found out you'd never hear the end of it!"

She laughed quietly. "No, that's true. How are they all anyway?"

"Oh, don't even get me started!" He sighed, filling her in on that antics of her old section as they continued their journey to London, and for a moment it was as though nothing had ever happened and she'd never been away. She found herself wishing that they could stay like that forever, but the truth was in a couple of hours she'd be back at her parents and have to go back to real life.


	2. Chapter 2

He felt his heart sink as she directed him into the parking space outside the block of flats. The journey had passed in the blink of an eye, after the initial awkwardness they'd started chatting about what Two Section had been up to, and what had happened on her tour. Two hours had passed in what felt like ten minutes, and selfishly he didn't want it to end. He'd missed her, so much more than he could put into words, and now he was going to have to leave her again after only a couple of hours.

He turned the car off, and they both sat next to each other silently for a moment. Molly glanced at Charles, and then up at the flats above them. Nothing had changed, as usual. The same grafitti covered the walls and she could see her parent's washing hanging from the balcony. Nothing had changed since she'd walked out of the door to go back to Afghanistan, and yet she felt like a completely different person.

"Thank you." She said quietly, smiling softly at Charles. "You really didn't have to drive me all the way back here."

He smiled back, shrugging slightly. "I wanted to. It's been really good to see you again." He didn't know what to say, he didn't want to blurt out exactly how he was feeling for fear he might frighten her off. He'd spent the months she'd been away on tour sitting behind a desk, thinking about how things might've been if she'd stayed, and how things could be when she came back from her tour. He'd built it up in his head, counting down the days until she would be back, and now he was sitting there next to her he just didn't know what to say.

There was a moment of silence before she spoke again. "Do you want to come up with me?" She asked. "I won't be offended if you want to go straight home, you've got a long way to drive and it's a bit of a mad house up there at the best of times." She was almost holding her breath, waiting for him to answer and praying he would stay a little bit longer.

"Well, how could I turn down an offer like that?" He smiled. "Lead the way Dawesey." He hopped out of the car, grabbing her bergen off the back seat and throwing it over his shoulder.

She trudged up the stairs with him beside her, her body was starting to feel the effects of the lack of sleep and the long journey home. She was sure someone had added in an extra couple of flights of stairs, it seemed to be taking much longer to climb up them than usual.

"You look like you need to get back to those PT sessions Dawes, you're out of breath climbing the stairs. I hope your new captain hasn't been letting you take things easy!" He joked as they reached the top of the stairs.

"I don't like him as much as I liked the last one." She laughed, then felt her cheeks flush red, wondering what he'd take that to mean.

"Is that so?" He smirked, and she felt herself turn even redder as she stopped in front of her parents front door. "I did hear your last Captain was pretty great."

"Don't flatter yourself." She snorted. She could hear her Mum shouting to her Dad on the other side of the door, telling him to get off his fat ass and answer the door. Somethings would never change.

The door swung open, her Mum on the other side looking rather frazzled. "Oh Mol, it's good to have you back." She smiled, throwing her arms around her and trapping her in a bear hug. "Come on, I'll put the kettle on. You must be exhausted!" She said when she finally released her.

"Is it okay if Charles stays for a bit?" Molly asked, after her Mum didn't acknowledge that Charles was standing there next to her.

Belinda hesitated for a second, glancing over at him as he shifted uncomfortably. "Of course. It's nice to see you again Charles." Her tone didn't sound genuine.

Molly frowned, she couldn't quite work out what was going on there. She'd have to ask her Mum later, she was giving him one of those looks she usually reserved just for Dave. She followed her Mum into the hallway, beckoning Charles in behind her- he was looking a bit unsure after the not so friendly welcome.

"Sorry." She mouthed over her shoulder as they walked into the living room where her Dad was sprawled on the sofa, a can of beer in his hand despite the fact it was barely lunch time.

"Alright Mol?" Dave asked, not making any attempt to move so that her and Charles could sit down. Instead they had to squeeze themselves into the armchair on the other side of the room, sitting uncomfortably close to each other. "What do you say to buying your old man a beer now you're back?"

She struggled to stop herself rolling her eyes at him. He hadn't changed a bit. She was about to answer him when Belinda appeared in the doorway. "Charles, can you come and help me carry these drinks please?" She asked.

Molly and Charles exchanged a look of surprise. "That's alright Mum, I'll come help ya." She went to get up, but Belinda shook her head.

"You stay there Mol, you must be knackered. Charles doesn't mind helping, do you?" Her tone made it clear there was no arguing with her.

Charles hauled himself out of the arm chair and followed Belinda into the kitchen, trying to ignore the feeling of dread in his stomach as the closed the door firmly behind them.

"Is everything okay Belinda?" He asked politely as she stood opposite him, arms folded and frowning.

"I'm just going to be honest here, I don't know what your intentions are with our Molly, but the last thing she needs after all this is you messing her around. She's been through enough already, you didn't see her after all that with Artan, she needs someone who's actually going to look after her." He could hear the accusation in her voice, the same as it had been when he'd come down to meet her after Artan had been arrested- they still blamed him for not putting a stop to it all sooner. She'd seemed okay on the phone when he'd phoned to ask if they'd be picking Molly up or if they wanted him to, he wondered what had changed between then and now.

"If I could go back and do it all again Belinda, there's so much I'd do differently to stop her getting hurt." He tried to reason.

"But none of us can go back, and my Mol was the one who got hurt. You were right there, in the house next door, and you knew what was going on and you didn't do anything to stop it until it was nearly too late. She might worship the ground you walk on, but I won't ever forgive you for that. You almost let her get killed."

"I tried." He had to remind himself to keep his voice at almost a whisper so Molly wouldn't hear them. "She didn't want my help Belinda, no matter how hard I tried. I spent that whole tour trying to stop her going back to him, but she was adamant that was what she wanted to do and I couldn't physically stop her."

"You should've done more." Belinda argued. "She trusted you, you could've stopped all of this! It's your-"

The door to the kitchen swung open, stopping her mid sentence.

"You two growing this tea from scratch or what?" Molly asked, standing in the doorway, hands on hips. "What's taking you so long?"

"Sorry." Belinda mumbled. "We got distracted." She grabbed the kettle, pouring the water into the mugs."

Molly frowned, looking at the slightly startled expression on Charles face. God she wished she knew what they'd been talking about in there, she knew it had to be about her, she just didn't know exactly what. Whatever it was, her Mum didn't want her to hear, and by the look on Charles's face, he wasn't going to tell her either.

"You've not made enough Mum." Molly pointing out the fact there was only two mugs on the side. "What about Charles?"

"You said you've got to go, haven't you Charles?" Belinda said, raising an eyebrow ever so slightly, giving him a look that made it clear he wasn't going to argue. "Such a shame you couldn't stay, but thanks for bringing our Molly home."

"Oh, do you really have to do?" Molly's face fell. "We've only just got here, you've at least got to stay and have a coffee before you drive all the way back."

Belinda shot him another look, and reluctantly he shook his head. "I'm really sorry Molly. I'll call you later, once I get back?"

She nodded slowly. "I'll walk you back to the car, don't want you getting lost." She tried to fake a smile to hide how disappointed she was. She'd got no idea what her Mum had said to him, but she was going to find out as soon as Charles was gone.

"That would be nice, thank you." He smiled, following her towards the front door and away from the disapproving looks Belinda was giving him.

She slammed the front door shut behind them, causing the frame to rattle loudly. She could practically see Dave on the sofa complaining about her now.

They walked back to the stairwell in silence, as they reached the top she caught his arm, turning him round to face her. "I'm really sorry, for whatever she said." She apologised. "She didn't mean it, I don't think."

He flashed her a half smile. "It's okay, really, she's got every right to want to protect you after everything that happened."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Molly frowned.

He hesitated for a moment. "You need to talk to your Mum Molly, it's not my place. She's worried about you, that's all. She cares, and that's a good thing."

"What did she say to you?" Molly pushed.

He shook his head. "Go and talk to your Mum, you need to work things out with her first I think. I can find my way back from here."

"Promise me you'll call me when you get back?" She asked, almost ashamed of how pathetic she sounded to her own ears.

"I promise." He smiled. "As soon as I get home."

"Thank you." She smiled. "For everything." Impulsively, she stepped forwards and wrapped her arms around him, relaxing against him as she felt him wrap his arms around her tightly. She felt safe, like for a moment none of the rest of it mattered, as she stood there in his arms.

But all too soon her pulled away. "Go on, go and spend some time with your family, they've missed you. I'll call you in a couple of hours."

She nodded, taking a couple of steps back- albeit reluctantly. She was honestly thinking about just getting in the car and going with him.

"Go!" He laughed. "That's an order!"

She pulled a face at him. "You're not my Captain any more, so I don't actually have to follow your orders any more."

He rolled his eyes, taking a couple of steps back towards the stairs. "You always have been a pain in the ass! I'll talk to you later!" He called over his shoulder, then he disappeared down the stairs, leaving her to go back and interrogate her Mum.


	3. Chapter 3

She slammed the door deliberately as she walked back into the flat, just to wind them up. She was tired and grumpy, and still covered in grime from the desert that would probably never come off, the last thing she needed were her bloody parents to start. Whatever her Mum had said to Charles was way out of line- if she'd stayed and waited for them to pick her up she'd still be standing there like a mug now, they could've at least said thank you, rather than kicking him out before he could even drink his coffee.

"Don't slam that bloody door Molly, for God's sake!" Dave shouted as she stormed back in. She didn't even stop to acknowledge him, flying straight through into the kitchen.

"What the hell did you say to him?!" She demanded, coming to an abrupt halt as she almost collided with her Mum in the doorway.

"Who?" Belinda asked innocently.

"Don't you give me that crap!" Molly snapped. "You bloody know I'm talking about Charles! You dragged him in here and then all of a sudden he had to leave? Do you think I'm stupid enough to believe that's a coincidence?"

"I don't want to see you end up getting hurt again Molly, I'm only thinking of you!" Belinda argued.

"So you did say something to him then!"

"I…" Belinda looked as though she might lose the ability to speak for a moment. "I just asked him what his intentions were. He just stood back and let you go back to Artan Molly, he should've been looking out for you and instead he almost let you get killed. You deserve better than that!"

Molly snorted with laughter. "I've not even known him a year, Artan's been beating the crap out of me for years- something which you never noticed, or if you did you didn't bloody bother to do anything did you! I don't really see how you can judge Charles, he did his best to try and help me even though I made it difficult for him. You and Dad were trying to convince me to marry Artan last time I saw you, so I think you ought to get down off that high horse."

"We didn't know!" Belinda argued. "Don't you think we would've done something?"

"You didn't want to know!" Molly shot back. "If you'd actually opened your eyes and looked you would've seen what he was like- he didn't exactly hide it. But, unlike Charles, you two never actually took the time to ask. If anything, you should be thanking Charles because if it wasn't for him I'd probably still be with Artan now!"

"Molly-" Belinda started, but she was too late, Molly was already heading for the front door again, the door rattling in the frame and shaking the entire house as she slammed it behind her.

She wasn't sure how long she'd been walking, when she eventually realised she was still in her uniform, and people were giving her some strange looks. She kept walking, if she went back home any time soon there was a real danger she was going to lose it with Belinda completely, and that was going to make staying there more than a bit uncomfortable. She hadn't been expecting anything like that from her Mum, if anyone was going to be a bit of a twat it was usually her Dad, but her Mum seemed determined to blame Charles for what had happened with Artan, no matter how ridiculous it seemed.

She eventually stopped walking, sitting down on a bench beside the river and just watching as everyone walked past- all of them in a hurry to get somewhere. She'dd forgotten all about how busy and chaotic London could be- it was about as far as she could get from the mountains of Afghanistan. She was missing it already and she hadn't even been back a day. It was something no one else in her family had ever been able to wrap their head around- she loved being out there.

As she sat there, people watching and trying to decide what she was going to do with her life, her phone rang.

"Hello?" She had a good idea who this was going to be.

"Hi." She could hear the smile in his voice.

"You got home quick." She commented.

"Ah I'm not there yet, but I was bored of driving so I thought maybe you could keep me company?"

"You do know it's illegal for you to use your phone and drive right?" She asked. "Not sure that would go down well with the army."

He laughed quietly, and it made her wish she was sat in the passenger seat beside him. " It's called hands free Dawes, I do enjoy talking to you, but not enough to make me want to break the law."

She laughed. "So, you enjoy talking to me hey?" She was grinning into the phone. Why hadn't she just gone back to Bath with him, she missed him already.

"I know, I must be losing it. All that time spent with two section, they've finally driven me mad." She could picture him now, smiling to himself as he was driving, that mischievous glint in his eyes.

"I dunno, might be a touch of dementia, what with your age and that." She joked.

"Bloody charming!" He laughed. "I drive all the way to come and get you, and this his how I get repaid!"

She laughed quietly. "Well, you did walk into that one. But seriously, thank you, I'd still be standing there on my own like a right idiot if it wasn't for you."

"Well, we can't have that now Dawesey." He smiled. "Now you'll have to come up to Bath so you can buy my a pint to say thank you."

"I would've bought you a pint tonight, but my bloody Mum had to ruin it." She grumbled. "I'm sorry about her, you should've just told her to shut up, they're both full of shit and sometimes you just have to remind them."

"It's okay, she's upset and worried about you." He shrugged. "I can't say I blame her, and anyway I'm sure you went back and set her straight."

"Guilty." She felt her cheeks flush. "I might've gone in, told her what I thought and then very dramatically stormed out." She heard him laugh quietly on the other end of the phone.

"I thought you might do something like that. Is this the point you tell me that I've got to turn around and drive all the way back to get you?" He would go back and get her if she asked, without hesitation. He wished he could've just taken her back to Bath with him in the first place. He missed her again already.

She shook her head. "Not yet, give it a few hours and then I might be ringing you again." She laughed. "You haven't met my Dad when he's had a skinfull, that's where the real arguments start."

Charles cringed. He had only met her Dad a couple of times, but he could definitely imagine him and Molly clashing once they'd had a couple of drinks. "Well, you could always come up here if you don't want to go back there. I've already had my mother on the phone wanting to know when you're coming to visit her."

"Don't tempt me." She groaned. "I probably ought to at least make an effort to try and get on with them before I run away again, no matter how tempting that offer sounds."

"Well, the offer is there if need be." He said, trying to suppress his disappointment that she wasn't going to be on the next train up there. "Now, go home and play nice! They're just worried about you, I can relate to that."

She hesitated for a second, not wanting to let him go. "I'll call you later and let you know if we all survived!" She joked.

"Sounds good." He smiled.

"Drive carefully." She added softly.

"I will, I'll speak to you later." He hung up, which was probably for the best because if it had been left to her she would've just sat there and babbled away all day.

She pulled herself up off the bench, her legs stiff and sore as she started to walk back home again. With a bit of luck her Mum might have calmed down by the time she got back. She'd barely taken two steps when a hand on her shoulder stopped her in her tracks. She spun round to see who it was, only to come face to face with Artan.

"Well well, I didn't think I'd be seeing you again any time soon." He smirked.


	4. Chapter 4

_Sorry this one is a little short, it's taken me a little while to get my motivation back to carry on. The next one will be an exciting one to make up for it!_

The phone hadn't even rung twice before he picked it up, he must've been sitting there with it in his hand she thought to herself. She was glad. His voice on the end of the phone was comforting, even though he was miles away from her it was so good to hear his voice.

"Molly, is everything okay?" His voice was quiet on the end of the phone. "Molly, are you there?"

"Yes." She answered quietly. She didn't know why she'd rung him, she hadn't got any words left to actually talk to him.

She pulled her jacket a little closer as the wind made her shiver. It was just starting to get dark, the streetlights just beginning to come on, but there were still crowds of people everywhere. She missed the peace and quiet of Afghanistan, at least there she could've sat herself on top of the toilets and had total peace and quiet for a couple of hours while she tried to sort out her screwed up head. But peace and quiet wasn't an option- going home to her parents was the opposite of what she wanted, but sitting on that bench by the river she felt like she was on edge, waiting for Artan to reappear behind her.

"Molly, what's wrong? You're worrying me." He was sat up straight on the sofa now, wondering if he should go and get back in the car and drive back to London again. He was exhausted, and the last thing he wanted to do was drive anywhere, but he'd do it for her.

"Nothing, nothing's wrong." She said, her voice cracking. A passer by gave her a funny look as she tried to hold back the tears that were welling in her eyes. Why had it never even crossed her mind that she might see Artan? Oh yeah, because there were more than eight million people in London and the chances of accidentally running into the one person she was trying to avoid had seemed impossible, up until the point he was standing there in front of her.

Except, it wasn't that impossible. Artan's entire life was in London, just like hers had been before the army. Of course he'd come back there, his family and friends were there. He'd never wanted to leave in the first place, it was her who'd made them leave everything because of where she'd been posted. How many times had the two of them walked the route she'd taken, hand in hand on their way out for the evening in the days before everything had turned to shit? She wished she'd thought of all this before coming back. The memory of how happy she'd been with him back then hit her like someone had punched her in the stomach and made her gasp for air.

"Molly, what's going on?" Charles asked, his voice more urgent. "Are you okay? Do you need me to come and get you?" He was already on his feet looking for his keys. He never should've left her there in the first place.

"No." She tried to focus on speaking, and actually sounding like a normal human being. "I'm fine."

"You don't sound it." He frowned, holding the phone closer to his ear as he strained to hear her. He knew her well enough to know that something was wrong, eventually she'd come out and tell him what happened, he just needed to be patient with her.

She dragged herself up off the bench, forcing her feet to start moving in the direction of her parents. As much as she wanted to, she couldn't avoid going back there forever, and at least there was no chance of unexpectedly running into Artan again there.

"I'm not." She admitted, pausing as she stopped to cross the road. "It's harder than I thought, being back here."

"Well." He said slowly. "It's always a bit difficult to adjust the first few days. You've not even been back a day yet."

"It's not that." She sighed, wondering how to explain herself to him without sounding like she was insane or him getting back in the car and driving back to London to look for Artan.

"Well, why don't you tell me what it is then?" He asked, sitting back down on the edge of the sofa. He still wasn't entirely convinced he shouldn't be on his way back to London, but he'd let her explain first. She obviously wasn't at home anyway, he could hear the traffic and people talking in the background. "Where are you?"

"I'm walking back to Mum and Dad's now." She replied. "I thought it might help clear my head."

"Did it work?" He prompted after a moment's silence.

"Not really." She admitted, her voice cracking ever so slightly. "I was hoping for for peace but there's not much of that in London. Makes me miss Afghanistan all over again."

"You know, Bath is quite peaceful." He hesitated for a moment, wondering if he'd overstepped the mark. The truth was he missed her, and he wanted to see her and make sure she really was okay. He wasn't bothered if that meant that he was driving down to London or she came up to Bath.

She cracked a smile despite her mood. "Are you suggesting I get on a train and come and see you right now?"

"Well, I wouldn't argue if you wanted to do that."

She smiled again. "I'm actually right outside the station now."

"Well, that's convenient isn't it… It's like it was meant to be." She could hear him smirking.

He was right, she did want to go there. He was the first person she'd wanted to speak to after what happened with Artan, and he was the first person she'd wanted to see when she got home. Somehow, even though she'd gone on another tour halfway across the world to try and stop it from happening, she'd completely fallen for him anyway, and maybe now she was done trying to fight it.

"There's a train in ten minutes." She told him, glancing up at the board as she ducked into the station. "Will you be able to pick me up?"

He could hardly believe what he was hearing. "Of course I will. You're actually coming then?" She could hear the excitement in his voice, no matter how hard he tried to hide it.

"You'd better hope I don't stand you up." She joked, balancing the phone between her shoulder and her ear as she bought her ticket from the machine.

"You'd never do that to me Dawesey, you like me too much for that." He grinned.

She laughed quietly. She felt so much better just for knowing she was going to see him in a few hours. "You'll have to wait and see won't you." She joked. She still couldn't really believe she was about to get on a train and go and see him. She was still in her uniform and she hadn't even got any clothes or anything with her.

"What? You've not changed your mind have you?" He asked, sounding worried as she went silent.

She shook her head. "No, I'm on the platform. I just realised I'm still in my uniform and I haven't actually got anything with me."

"So? We do have shops in Bath Dawes. We can sort that out tomorrow, just get on that bloody train and I'll see you in a few hours okay? I've missed you."

"Ditto." She smiled. "I'll see you soon."

"See you soon." He replied softly as she hung up the phone.


	5. Chapter 5

As the train pulled into the station at Bath it suddenly hit her that she was actually doing this- she'd spontaneously got on a train to Bath and she was actually about to see him again. Her stomach was churning and she wasn't sure if it was a mixture of excitement or fear that she might've made a mistake. She wasn't even sure if her legs were going to work to stand up and get herself off the train.

Maybe this hadn't been the best idea she'd ever had, but it was a bit late to change her mind now.

She stood up and slowly filed out of the door on to the platform, looking above her at the signs to work out where she was supposed to be going. She followed the crowd of people who'd got off the train with her in the direction of the exit, hoping he would be easy to find because her phone had run out of battery so she hadn't got any way to get in touch with him.

She was so busy scanning the small crowd of people waiting by the entrance she didn't see him standing there until she'd almost walked straight into him.

"You might want to look where you're going Dawes." He smirked, putting a hand on her arm to steady her as she stopped abruptly.

"Sorry…" She mumbled, taking a step back out of his personal space. "Hi." Why did she suddenly feel so awkward standing there in front of him?

"You don't need to look quite so terrified Dawes." He frowned. "Come on, let's go and then you can tell me what really happened."

"What do you mean what happened?" She frowned, automatically following after him as he started to walk towards the door. Maybe ti would be easier to talk to him without him looking at her.

"You didn't just go out for a walk and randomly decide to get on a train to Bath." He glanced back at her, she looked down at the floor to avoid meeting his eye. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, but if you do then you know I'll listen or try and fix it or whatever you want me to Molly."

She hesitated for a moment. She felt weirdly safe and comforted, even just standing in the entrance to the station beside him. This feeling was what made her get on that train in the first place. "I'll tell you later, can we just go? I really need to shower and get out of this bloody uniform. I'm still covered in Afghan."

He laughed quietly. "I think we can manage that. Come on, I'm parked just out front."

She trailed after him, sliding into the passenger seat beside him. It was a weird sense of deja-vu. It seemed ridiculous that it had only been a matter of hours since he'd picked her up from the airfield that morning. It felt like a lifetime had passed.

She must have fallen asleep, because the next thing she knew he was shaking her awake and they were parked in the driveway of what might have been the biggest house she'd ever seen.

"You've sure gone up in the world since you were my neighbour." She commented, climbing out of the car. She suddenly felt so out of place, she'd forgotten somewhere along the line that they came from two completely different worlds. He'd been her bloody Captain for god's sake, how had she ended up here?

He slammed the car door behind him and walked around the car to stand beside her. "It's not mine, it's my parents. My lease was up on my place so I moved back here for a little while until I decide what I'm going to do."

"I see." She mumbled. He put a hand on her shoulder and gently pushed her up the path towards the house.

"What's wrong?" He asked, she stopped dead the second he stopped pushing her along.

"Nothing." She answered quietly.

"You've never been a good liar Molly." He raised an eyebrow at her.

"I don't know." She shrugged. "I don't want to intrude on your parents or anything. I didn't really think before I got on the train, I just… well I needed to call someone and you were the only person I could think of." She wasn't about to admit it, but she didn't have anyone else to call even if she had wanted to.

"You're not intruding, you know that. Mum was more excited when I told her you were coming than when I got home from Afghan. I think she likes you more than she likes me to be honest." He smiled reassuringly. "Just be warned she's probably going to force feed you tea and cake, I must've put on half a stone since I've been back here."

She cracked a smile at that. If only her parents had been those kind of people, maybe things would've been so different. She didn't have much time to dwell on it though, somehow they'd managed to reach the door while she'd been in her own little world.

The front door swung open before Charles had a chance to reach for the door handle and his mother rushed out and pulled Molly into a hug. "Oh Molly, it's so good to see you again!"

Molly was frozen for a moment, the shock of what had just happened rooting her to the ground, but after a second she managed to return the hug and the disentangled herself from his Mum. "Hello Mrs James." She tried to manage a smile.

"Come in, come in." She beckoned them inside. "Are you hungry? Charles didn't know if you'd had dinner so I saved you some if you'd like it. Shall I put the kettle on?"

"Mother." Charles had a warning tone to his voice, much the same as he had the time he'd found two section about to dive into the small paddling pool his Mum had sent him when they were on tour. "How about you let Molly take her shoes off first?" He suggested.

"Right, sorry." His Mum smiled, holding her hands up and backing away a couple of steps. "I'll leave you two to it, the food is in the oven if you decide you want it. I've made up the spare room for you, let me know if you need anything okay?"

"Thank you Mrs James." Molly smiled, more genuinely this time, watching as she disappeared through a door at the end of the hall.

"Sorry about her." Charles smiled apologetically. "Are you hungry?"

Molly nodded. "Yes, but can I please shower and get out of this bloody uniform first?" She looked down at her dirty combats and felt seriously out of place standing in beautiful hallway of his parents home, she was pretty sure she was leaving dirty bootprints on the floor.

"Yeah of course, come on." He gestured to the stairs as Molly kicked her boots off, placing them neatly against the wall. She followed him up the stairs, trying not to touch anything incase she left a dirty mark on something.

She followed him a long to the bathroom. "Two seconds, I'll go and get you some towels." He said, disappearing again and then reappearing with two towels and a t-shirt and a pair of shorts. "I know these aren't ideal but they're the best I can do for the moment, we'll sort something out in the morning." He smiled apologetically as he passed them to her.

"Thank you, I really appreciate it." She answered softly.

He smiled in return. "My room is just across the hall okay? Come and get me when you're done and we'll get you some food." He disappeared again, closing the door behind him.

She dropped the towels on the floor, standing there for a moment in front of the mirror looking at her reflection. She looked exhausted, and she couldn't tell if she'd finally got a tan while she'd been on tour or if it was just the residual Afghan dirt on her skin. One thing she did know, was that for the first time since she'd been back she didn't feel anxious that Artan might be just around the corner, being there with Charles she felt safe.


	6. Chapter 6

Twenty minutes later, most of which was spent trying to rinse the Afghan crime out of Mrs James' spotlessly clean shower, she tiptoed across the hall to the door that was slightly ajar. She felt a bit awkward, standing there in his parents house, wearing his clothes that absolutely drowned her. She hesitantly pushed the door open a little bit further, praying she'd got the right room and wasn't about to walk in on his parents, much to her relief he was laying there on the bed looking like he might fall asleep any moment.

"Sorry, am I keeping you awake?" She asked, a smile playing on her lips.

He rubbed at his face and sat up a little, trying to shake off the feeling of exhaustion that had hit him like a train the second he'd sat down. He shook his head in answer to her question. "No, of course not. Are you hungry still?" He changed the subject before she could make herself feel guilty for calling him.

She shook her head, shifting awkwardly in the doorway. She'd lost her appetite while she was stood in the shower mulling over what had happened, but she also wasn't ready to go to bed and be alone with her thoughts.

"I can show you where the spare room is if you're tired?" He asked, starting to stand up.

Molly shook her head and he stopped in his tracks. "Do you mind if I just sit with you for a while? I'm not ready to go to sleep yet." She asked timidly. Her heart was in her mouth, the fear of rejection taking over her.

He relaxed back down on the bed, patting the empty space beside him. "Of course you can Dawes. Make yourself comfortable." He smiled.

She felt her heart skip a beat as she walked around and climbed on to the bed beside him. As much as she hated to admit it, all she really wanted to make herself feel better was to be close to him. She couldn't help but wonder how things might've turned out if she hadn't pushed him away and taken that tour- would they be curled up on the sofa in a house of their own by now? A part of her wished they were.

But she'd done the right thing, that was what she'd kept reminding herself while she'd been missing him when she was away. If she'd let herself just fall into a relationship with him things would never have worked out, she was too messed up after what happened with Artan to be able to trust someone properly again. She needed the time to heal.

She thought that was what she'd done, those months in the Afghan desert thinking things through over and over again as she laid in that tiny little bunk had allowed her to put Artan in a tiny little box and shove him to the back of her mind where she didn't have to think about him anymore. That was until he'd been stood there right in front of her, then that bloody box had opened itself again and dragged everything up again.

"Penny for your thoughts Dawes?" He asked, rolling onto his side with his head propped up by his arm so he could look at her. "Never seen you this quiet in my life, I didn't even know you could manage it!"

She attempted a smile, turning her body a little so she was lying down facing him. He looked exhausted, despite his attempt to deny it, he could barely keep his eyes open and she wondered how long it would take for him to fall asleep if she started talking.

"Something happened earlier." She started slowly, it was too late to turn back now. She was going to have to tell him. "When I phoned you."

"I guessed as much." He said quietly, battling with his body to try and stay awake. He'd never forgive himself if the moment she finally decided to open up he fell asleep while she was talking.

"Mum and Dad were really pissing me off- I don't know what she said to you, but I know she told you to go and I'm really sorry." She paused glancing up at him. He nodded and smiled understandingly, silently encouraging her to carry on. "I sort of stormed out and just started walking, I used to walk around London all the time to escape them two so it was just like I was on autopilot. I sat there for a bit, just like thinking about things, and then I got up to leave and he was just there."

"Who?" His sleep deprived mind didn't get there at first. "Artan?!"

Molly nodded, biting her lip. "I think it was just a coincidence, we used to walk down that way together all the time when we lived in London. It just never even crossed my mind that he might be in London. But I suppose all his family is there, his whole life was there until I dragged him to the other end of the country when I joined the army. It makes sense for him to go back there."

"Did he say anything to you?" Charles asked, he was suddenly much more awake now she'd dropped that bombshell on him.

He knew the answer already from the way she hesitated and avoided meeting his eyes.

"What did he say to you Molly?" He asked, trying to remind himself to keep calm. What he actually wanted to do was get back in the car and drive all the way back to London so he could put Artan in his place.

"It's fine, really." She mumbled. "It was just a shock, seeing him there like that."

"Molly, what did he say?" He was getting stern with her now. Hearing his voice like that made her feel like she was back in the ops tent listening to him bollocking the under fives all over again. She missed them.

"He just made some comment about me being out on my own, that's all." She sighed. "Said you'd obviously realised what a filthy little slut I really am and that I was nowhere near good enough for you and left me." She regretted saying it as soon as the words left her mouth. She watched as his face turned deadly serious and his fists clenched the bed sheets as he struggled to calm himself down.

"Did he say anything else to you?" He asked, making an effort to keep his voice calm and level.

She shook her head. "No, I left." She answered quickly.

He'd got a feeling she wasn't telling him the truth, but one thing he'd learned with her was the harder he pushed the more she shut him out.

"He's wrong you know." He said quietly, reaching out slowly to put a hand on her arm, afraid he might startle her.

"What?" She looked at him in confusion. She didn't know what she'd been expecting him to say but it wasn't that.

"Well everything he says is wrong, he's full of shit." He smiled to himself. "But I could never get bored of you Molly, and you know that I want to be there for you- and if that's just as friends then that's fine, but if you ever decide you're ready to trust me and you want something more then I'll be here."

She felt her eyes welling up as he spoke, and she scooted across the bed to close the distance between them, burying her face in his chest so he wouldn't see she was crying. He closed his arms around her and held her tightly, and she felt safe and comforted- something she'd never once felt with Artan.

Charles was right, she could trust him with her life- she had done in Afghanistan when he was her Captain- but this was different. She knew he'd never do anything to deliberately hurt her, that she could tell him how she felt without fear of being punished. She still couldn't wrap her head around the fact that this amazing man- who was now snoring in her ear- actually wanted to be with her, Molly Dawes.

But yet she could still heat Artan in the back of her head telling her she'd never be good enough and that she didn't deserve to be happy.


	7. Chapter 7

He woke up the next morning with his arm around her, her head resting on his chest as she snored softly. He resisted the urge to pull her in closer in fear that she might wake up. Selfishly, he wanted to savour the moment, because things weren't going to be this simple once she woke up.

She was determined to push him away, even last night when she'd finally started to open up to him a tiny bit, there was a part of her that wanted to run. He could see it in her face as she was talking. Abad he got it, he really did, she'd been hurt so many times before she was worried it was going to happen again if she let him in. The problem was he was running out of ways to show her that she could trust him.

It was awful to think that Artan had messed her up so much that even after all this time she still thought that she deserved everything that had happened, that he was still in her head enough to make her doubt herself every day. How she could ever think that she wasn't good enough to be with him was beyond him. If anything, he wasn't sure he was really good enough for her. After everything she'd been through, to come out of the other side and pick up the pieces of her life the way she had done… well he was in awe.

She shifted slightly, rolling away from him, and he took the opportunity to get up. It was just after eight in the morning- and probably the latest he'd slept in since he'd joined the army. His body clock was set for early mornings after this many years. He was surprised his mother hadn't been up to check he was still alive.

He could hear his mother in the kitchen as he walked down the stairs and he could smell the coffee that he was desperately craving. Even in Afghanistan he hasn't been a fully functional person until he'd had his first cup of coffee.

"Good Morning Charles." His mother said, handing him a mug of coffee as he walked in. "I was starting to wonder where you'd got to." She was giving him one of those looks that made him wish he'd never come down the stairs.

"Thanks Mum." He reached past her and took out another mug to make Molly a cup of tea.

"The spare room doesn't look like it's had much use." She peered at him over her mug, waiting for his reaction.

He took a sip of his scalding hot coffee to avoid having to answer her for a second. God he needed to move out again, and soon.

"We were talking and we both fell asleep, that's all." He sighed, and it was the truth. Why did he feel like he was a naughty child lying to his mother? "So you can stop looking at me like that!"

"Like what?" She was trying to keep a straight face, he could see the start of a smile playing on the corner of her lips and she'd got that mischievous glint in her eye.

"You know what!" He shook his head, pouring the milk into Molly's tea. He'd decided the best plan of action was just to get back up stairs as quickly as possible.

She placed her cup down on the side and stepped a little closer to him. "Your father and I were just saying how lovely it is to see you so happy, that's all. I know you're going to say nothing has happened, but it's obvious that you really like her Charles, and she's a lovely girl. We just want you both to be happy that's all, it's been a long time since we've seen you like this." He thought for a moment she was going to cry.

She was right too, as much as it pained him to admit it. He couldn't remember a time where he'd looked forward to seeing Rebecca as much as he did Molly. Maybe right at the very beginning, but when he looked back on their relationship now the majority of the memories were of the horrific arguments they'd had and battles over who was seeing Sam. That was why he'd buried himself in work because it was easier to focus on that, then he didn't have a chance to think about how much he missed having a family.

And then out of nowhere Molly had unexpectedly crashed into his life and turned everything on its head. Looking back on it now, right from day one there was something there, he just hadn't been able to see it at the time. That urge to find out what was going on with her, and then protect her even before he knew the full extent of what was going on, he should've seen what was happening.

That moment when he'd seen her drop to the floor on that bridge in Afghanistan had been one of the worst moments of his life. He'd honestly thought they'd lost her, and the thought that they'd never had the chance to give things a real go was awful. But now they were here, and he wasn't her captain any more and Artan was out of the picture he just didn't know what to say or do.

He didn't want to put any pressure on her, that was the problem. She'd been through enough and if she wanted him to be her friend then that was what he would do. He'd love the opportunity for something more, but only if she was sure that was what she wanted too. At the end of the day he just wanted her to be happy, whether that meant them being together or something else.

"See, you're smiling just thinking about her." His Mum beamed.

He snapped himself out of this thought, fished the tea bag out of Molly's mug and picked both of them up, heading for the stairs again.

"Thanks Mum." He said softly, heading back up the stairs.

She was just starting to wake up as he crept back into the room, struggling to shut the door without spilling any of his precious coffee. She blinked sleepily, looking at him in confusion.

"Morning." He smiled, placing his mug down on the bedside table and holding hers out towards her.

She struggled to sit herself up against the headboard before gratefully accepting the mug from him. "Sorry, you should've woken me up." She could feel herself blushing, so she stared intently down at her drink so she didn't have to look at him.

He settled himself back on the bed next to her, trying not to spill his own drink. "I really don't mind. I think we were both dead to the world anyway, it was a long day yesterday!"

She hesitated for a moment, thinking. "I feel like I've been back for a month already. How is it even possible that you only picked me up yesterday?"

He honestly didn't know, it felt like a lifetime ago to him to. "It's been a strange couple of days, that's for sure." He smiled, shaking his head. "What do you want to do today then, we probably need to go and get you some clothes or something?"

She nodded, looking down and realising she was still wearing his clothes. "Oh, yeah, I guess I can't walk around in these forever." She smiled. She sort of wished they didn't have to get her any clothes of her own so she had an excuse to keep his on. They smelled like him and it was comforting.

"If we go soon we can go and get some breakfast before? My treat." He suggested. "Oh, I should warn you now that I've had half of two section on the phone wanting to know when you're going out for drinks with them. I told them to maybe wait until you'd at least been back a whole day, but I don't think I'll be able to keep them at bay for long. They've really missed you." He smiled.

She laughed quietly, sipping at her drink. "I hate to admit it, but I have missed them too. Mind you if you ever repeat that to any of them I'll deny all knowledge of it. That tour just wasn't the same without them lot."

"Bet you had half the amount of work to do though, not having to patch up their stupid self inflicted injuries." He rolled his eyes, how he'd managed to get them all through that tour and back home again was beyond him.

She laughed. "Don't you know it!" She drained the last of her tea and put the mug down on the bed side table. "Right, I better make myself look presentable if we're going out. Although I'm not sure how!"

"I think Mum left a pair of jeans and a top she thought might fit you somewhere. I'll go and have a look." He climbed back out of bed. "If you want to shower I'll leave them in the spare room for you?"

She nodded. "Thank you." She smiled as he disappeared out of the bedroom again. What had she done to deserve him? The only thing she knew for sure is she'd be absolutely lost if he hadn't been there for her.


	8. Chapter 8

It was a little after eleven when he finally dragged her out of the shops and into a little cafe across the street, he'd claimed he was in desperate need of a coffee-which wasn't a total lie- but he also wanted to just sit and talk to her for a while, they hadn't really had a proper conversation about what her being back meant with everything that happened. She'd picked a table by the window, shoving her shopping bahe under the table as he'd queued up to get the drinks, waiting for him.

"So." He said, breaking the silence. He placed the two mugs down on the table between them as he sat down. "You never really did tell me about your tour, was it everything you hoped it would be?"

He was genuinely interested, and not just asking because he felt like he had to, that was one of the things she'd always loved about him. Maybe that was how she'd ended up telling him about Artan, because even when she'd hardly known him he'd always been there to listen without judging her.

"It was good." She said slowly, thinking. She didn't really know how to put into words what those three months in Afghanistan had done for her. It'd been one of the hardest decisions she'd had to make, walking away from him and the possibilities of what might've happened between them. But she also knew that the fact that she had done that was probably the reason they were sitting there together now.

"Good?" He frowned at her, a smirk on the corner of his lips. "You were there for three months Molly you must have a bit more than that." He laughed.

She smiled in return, sipping at the steaming mug of tea he'd placed in front of her. It was far too hot to drink but she needed a moment to collect her thoughts. "It was nice, I got to see a few of my old friends who I trained with, and I got to catch up with Quaseem too."

"But?" He could hear in her voice there was a but coming.

"But." She said slowly, looking down at the table. She could feel her cheeks darkening already. "I kept thinking how much better it would've been if I was there with Two Section…. and you." She added quietly.

He smiled, waiting until she finally stopped staring at the table and looked at him. "I would've much rather been there with you too, it seemed like the longest three months of my life waiting for you to come back. But, even I can see that you were right. You look so much happier than you did when you came to see me and tell me you were going."

She nodded, gulping down another mouthful of her tea, thankfully it wasn't quite so hot by this point. "I still wasn't really sure I was actually doing the right thing when I came to tell you." She admitted. "It was a lot easier sitting at my Mum and Dads to convince myself that letting myself fall into a relationship with you was the wrong thing to do. Then I was standing there in your office and all I wanted was to be with you, not fly off to the other side of the world again."

He reached across the table hesitantly, taking her hand in his when he realised she wasn't going to pull away. "Believe me, I wouldn't have argued with you if you'd said you wanted to stay but you did the right thing. You weren't the Molly I know when you came to see me that day, I didn't really understand it at the time but I do now. It's just nice to see you so happy again."

She squeezed his hand a little tighter. "I didn't want to rush into anything, it took me most of those three months to sort everything that had happened with Artan out in my head and be a functional person again." She admitted. "I didn't want to try and start anything with you and then find out he'd messed me up so much that I'd ruin things with you."

"I know, I understand that now." He nodded. "But at the time when you were standing there telling me you loved me but you didn't want to be with me, it was a bit harder to process."

She decided her cheeks must be the colour of the bottle of tomato ketchup on the table by this point because she could feel the heat radiating from them. "I can't actually believe I walked into your office and said that." She shook her head, the truth was it had just tumbled out of her mouth as she'd been stood there in front of him, she certainly hadn't planned it.

"It wasn't what I was expecting either." He smiled, the hope that hearing her say that had given him had been what kept him going through the months she was gone.

"It was true though." She told him, her voice a low whisper. "And it still is." She looked up at him hesitantly, hoping she hasn't said too much. Why was she incapable of stopping herself when it came to him?

"I know." He smiled, leaning in a little closer. "I've been waiting for you to come back to me. I didn't want to put any pressure on you, I meant it when I said I'd be your friend if that was what you wanted. It might've been difficult but I would've managed it."

She laughed quietly. "Let's be honest, I don't think either of us could've managed it."

He shook his head. "No, you're right. And now you're not in my chain of command, we can just see where things take us?" He sounded hopeful, like there was a part of him that was still worried she might say no and leave him.

"That sounds alright to me." She smiled, picking up her mug and draining the last of her tea. "I think right now it's going to be leading us in the direction of that shoe shop over there!"

He groaned, following her as she stood up and gathered her bags together.

"Don't look at me like that!" She laughed. "You were the one that offered to bring me, I could've come on my own!"

"Yeah well, I didn't realise quite what I'd let myself in for!" He retorted. He honestly didn't mind, he just enjoyed winding her up a bit, he was just happy to be spending time with her even if that did mean trailing behind her while she visited every shop in the city.

"Just you wait." She laughed, holding her hand out to him. "The best is yet to come!"


	9. Chapter 9

"Good morning." His voice was low in her ear, and for some reason it made her blush. She was actually here, in his bed, and it wasn't just one of those dreams she'd had when she'd been away on tour. He was actually there beside her, watching her sleepily with that sleepy smile on his face.

"Morning." She smiled back, stretching as she yawned. Her body clock was still a bit messed up, she had absolutely no idea what time it was although it looked to just be getting light outside- but she didn't really care if she was honest.

His hand moved, just a fraction of an inch closer to her as though he might be about to rest it on her waist, then he stopped himself and moved it back, a frown crossing his face for just a split second. He looked almost nervous.

That was when she realised he was. He was worried he was going to do or say something that was a little bit too much for her, and that the whole thing was going to come crashing down around them. She knew how he felt because that was exactly what she'd been thinking laying there last night listening to him breathing.

Surely, at some point, he was going to realise that he didn't really want to be with her and all the baggage she came with? Good things didn't happen to her, and how could she really go from Artan to someone like Charles. He was far too good for her, and she wasn't sure if after everything that had happened she would ever really be able to trust anyone properly, no matter how much she wanted to.

She'd resigned herself last night to the fact that she would have to enjoy it while it lasted. Take each day as it came and try not to get too attached- but that was the problem, she loved him already in a way that she had never really loved Artan and no matter what she told herself it was really going to hurt like hell when he did finally decide this wasn't what he wanted at all.

"What are you worrying about now?" He asked, she'd got that look on her face again like she'd disappeared off into her own thoughts, and if he was honest it worried him seeing her like that. It was a look he recognised from when they'd been on tour together, and he knew she was thinking about Artan.

When she'd fallen asleep laying on his bed last night he hadn't made any attempt to wake her up, he hadn't wanted too. Instead he'd just pulled the covers over her and settled down beside her, relishing in the fact that she was actually there with him after all this time and everything that had happened. Even after everything they'd talked about yesterday and hearing her say she wanted to be with him he was still so worried she'd feel like he was pressuring her into it and push him away. It was like walking on eggshells.

"Nothing." It was an automatic response, coming from years of trying to convince people she was okay. "I'm just thinking about things."

"And what kind of things would they be?" He asked, rolling over so he was facing her properly and he could watch her face for some kind of sign of what was going on in her head.

She shrugged, moving herself a little bit closer to him. She could feel the heat radiating from him and she so desperately wanted him to put his arms around her and hold her until she felt safe, but the fear of him rejecting her- no matter how irrational it was- stopped her.

He looked at her, waiting for her to continue.

"Did I ever tell you I didn't really like you when I first joined two section?" Ashe asked, completely changing the subject. The look he was giving her now reminded her a but of how he'd looked at her those first few day, she just couldn't put her finger on why.

He raised an eyebrow at her. "I feel like you're trying to change the subject, but I have to admit I'm curious."

She laughed quietly. "I'm not even really sure why now I think about it, I think it was just the way you looked at me that first day. You didn't even look a little bit pleased to see me."

He cringed. "You weren't really what I was expecting Dawes."

"What's that supposed to mean?" She sounded offended, but he could see the smile playing on her lips. He forgot for a moment that she'd totally steered him away from his original question, but he was just relieved to see her happier.

He paused for a second, trying to find the right words to explain what he meant. "Well, from the moment they found out who was coming everyone seemed to be singing your praises and telling me how brilliant and experienced you were, I'd got a picture of you in my mind, and then when you turned up you took me by suprise, you were so much younger than I thought. I'd got enough on my plate baby sitting two section I was a bit worried I might have to do that with you too, I just needed someone I could trust."

"Well, luckily for you I did turn out to be the best medic you've ever had!" She joked.

He rolled his eyes. "You were alright I suppose."

"Alright?! Bloody charming!" She went to jab him in the ribs, but he caught her and pulled her towards him until she was laying against his chest, exactly where she'd wanted to be.

"I'm only kidding, you know how lucky I feel that I ended up with you." He was serious suddenly.

"I mean luckily for me you'd turned out to be bearable." She joked. "I mean only just, but I guess I'll live."

"You're lucky I'm not still your Captain!"

"Oh I would've said it to you even back then." She laughed. "I don't hold back, Mum always said I'd get myself in trouble one day."

"I don't doubt it." He laughed.

There was a brief pause, both of them just laying there enjoying being with eachother.

"So then, what does a girl have to do to get a cup of tea around here?" Molly asked, breaking the silence.

"I'm sure I could I think of some things." He winked. "But as it's you Dawes, I'll do it just this once." He held on to her for second longer before forcing himself out of the bed to make her a cup of tea.

"Thanks." She grinned at him as he disappeared out of the door.

She reached for her phone which was lying on the bedside table, she'd been vaguely aware of it vibrating a few times while they'd been talking. As she picked it up it started to ring again, another unknown number.

"Hello?" She answered warily. She hadn't given anyone other than Charles and her parents her new phone number so she had no idea who it would be.

"Are you there with him right now?" Her blood ran cold, she'd recognise that drinker slur anywhere. It had haunted her dreams for months. "Are you in his bed, laughing at me right now?"

"How did you get this number?" She asked, her voice hushed. She felt sick.

"Don't you get it Molly, you can go and live somewhere else and change your phone number but I'm still going to find you. I'm not going to forget what you did to me." The line went dead as he hung up on her.


	10. Chapter 10

" Everything okay?" He asked, coming back into the room with a cup of tea a few minutes later. "You look like you've seen a ghost." He sat down on his side of the bed and passed her the mug of tea he'd brought her.

"Fine. Everything's fine." She mumbled, taking the mug from him and pushing herself up so she was sitting up against the headboard of the bed. He looked at her questioningly for a moment, but decided not to push it any further. She head her phone vibrate quietly on the bed side table and for a moment she thought she might be sick. Charles was still looking at her, watching her face to try and work out what had changed in the five minutes it had taken him to go down the stairs and make a cup of tea.

"So, I wonder what you thought about maybe meeting Sam today?" He asked, breaking the awkward silence that had descended on them. "I said that I'd take him to the park, Nothing exciting I know, Nothing exciting I know, but I thought it might give us something to do. I'm sure he'd love to meet you."

She hesitated for a second. How was it that the night before she'd been sitting there talking to him as though there may actually have been some kind of future for the two of them, like they could somehow have been a family. For a moment, it seemed like there was a light at the end of the tunnel, like maybe she was going to get a second chance to be happy after everything that had happened. Then in a matter of seconds, Artan had reappeared and suddenly it had all come crashing down around her.

Part of her wanted to tell Charles, she knew he'd hold her and make her feel safe again, that he'd do everything he could to make sure it was all going to be okay. And that was exactly why she couldn't tell him. She knew Artan, and she knew that he meant every single word of what he said. He wasn't going to just stop. He'd be there, waiting and watching, he was never going to let her be happy with Charles. What frightened her most, was the thought of Charles getting hurt because of her. She'd seen Artan at his most desperate, and she'd almost been killed. If Charles and two section hadn't happened to have been next door she was in no doubt at all that she would be dead. She'd been lucky, and she didn't think she'd be as lucky this time round. It turned out that sober and angry Artan was even more terrifying than the drunk and desperate man she'd left behind when she'd gone to Afghanistan.

She could hear it in his voice on the phone. He was angry, and he wasn't going to stop until he felt like he'd got revenge. She wasn't about to let Charles and Sam get caught up in the middle of it. She should never have let him get involved in the first place, never mind kid herself into thinking there could actually be a future between the two of them. She'd let herself get attached, and that was what was making the fact that she knew she had to walk away so much harder.

"Actually." She said slowly, trying to work out what she was actually going to say to do this without hurting his feelings. "I think I should probably go back to London." She prayed for a second, as stupid as it was, that he wasn't going to ask.

"Oh." His face fell. "Is everything okay? Do you want me to come with you?"

She shook her head, already getting out of bed and picking up her clothes. "It's fine, thanks. But I should really get going." She was pulling her jeans on, trying to remember where she'd left her shoes.

During her search he'd somehow ended up in front of her, a hand on each of her shoulders as he turned her to face him. "Molly are you sure everything's okay?" He asked. He already knew the answer, something had happened. She hadn't just woken up this morning and decided to get the first train back to London for no reason. He'd thought things were going so well between them and now she couldn't even look at him.

"It's fine, everything's fine. I'm really sorry okay, but I have to go. Please just let me go." She pleaded. She hadn't thought about how hard it would be to see the hurt on his face. "I'll call you tonight and explain? Please, I just need to go."

He hesitated for a moment, his hands still on either side of her shoulders. "You know I''m not going to stop you Molly, if this is what you want to do. I just wish you'd tell me why."

She could feel the tears forming in her eyes, and she knew she had to get out of there now or she wasn't going to. She grabbed her shoes and her bag, snatching her phone up off the bedside table. "I'm sorry, I really am." She mumbled, kissing him quickly, before forcing herself to pull away from him. She ran down the stairs and out onto the street, and she didn't stop running until she was well clear of the house just incase he had tried to follow her.

When she was sure she was far enough away he wasn't going to come looking for her, she stopped and leant back against the wall of a shop, trying to work out where she actually was. She hadn't got a bloody clue where she was, never mind how to get to the train station.

Her phone buzzed again in her pocket. One message from Artan, and three from Charles. She stared at the message from Charles for a moment, and it took everything she'd got in her not to walk back around the corner and go and find him. She hesitated for a moment staring at the texts. Her fingers hesitated over the buttons for a moment, before she clicked back and then clicked on to the message from Artan. Her heart was pounding in her chest as she wrote the message.

 _Coming back to London, meet me in Costa at Stratford 3pm. We need to talk._


	11. Chapter 11

_Well this kind of developed a mind of its own and ran away with me while I was writing it, not where I'd planned to go with it at all... but I hope you'll still enjoy it?!_

Costa was packed, thankfully. That was what she'd been counting on. Surely with this many people around Artan couldn't create too much of a scene, if he even turned up that was. She scanned the cafe and felt a little relieved when she didn't see any sign of him. She ordered herself a cup of tea and headed for an empty table right at the back, where she'd be able to see the door so she could see him coming.

She really wasn't sure what had made her think that this might be a good idea. She'd felt a whole lot braver in Bath, but being back in London and knowing she was about to be face to face with him again made her stomach churn. She stirred the cup of tea in front of her mindlessly, her eyes fixed to the door. She didn't think she'd be able to drink it without having to throw up, or her hands shaking so much she'd spill it everywhere.

Her heart was pounding in her chest as she watched the door, she spotted him coming from a mile off. He was still wearing the same khaki green coloured hoody he was last time she'd seen him. She saw him looking around, then pause for a second when he spotted her. He headed straight for her, not bothering to go and get himself a drink, and she wondered briefly if it was too late to change her mind. God she wished Charles was there with her.

He hesitated for a second as he reached the table, before he pulled out the chair opposite her. "Well, I've got to say this is a surprise." He commented, raising an eyebrow.

"Thanks for coming." She mumbled.

"Does your new man know you're here?" He asked. "What's his name, Charles?" He sneered as he said his name.

"He's not my anything." She sighed. "You made sure of that."

"Why am I here Molly?" He asked. "What is this?"

"I don't know." She ran her hand through her hair, trying to get her head straight. "I thought maybe we could talk, that maybe it might help. I don't really know what I was thinking, I mean we've never really been good at this have we?"

"I'm not sure there is anything to talk about is there?" She'd taken him by surprise, she could see it from the look on his face.

"How did we end up here?" She asked quietly, stirring her tea. "Because I've been over and over it about a thousand times and I can't make sense of it."

"What do you want me to say? That I screwed it up? That I'm sorry? That I wish things had worked out differently?" He asked. "Because I think I tried Molly!"

"I'm not saying that." She sighed. "I don't want your apologies. It's not like that is going to undo what you did to me. I just, I'm trying to understand. I need something, anything really to make this make some kind of sense to me so that I can move on from it. I need some closure."

"What do you want me to say?" He snapped. She was winding him up, she could see it in his face. "That it was all my fault? Because I'm sure as hell not about to. You screwed us up just as much as I did Molly, if not more. You couldn't just leave it. You just had to keep pushing, didn't you? After you joined the army, you came back and you looked at me.. Well like I was something you'd scraped off the bottom of your shoe. I moved across the country to be with you and then you never once thanked me for it."

"What was I supposed to do? Thank you every time you pushed me into the table or slapped me round the face?" She asked, dropping her voice to a whisper so no one would overhear. She could see the woman at the table next to them watching them out of the corner of her eye already.

"I didn't mean to." He shot back, he was gripping the edge of the table so hard his knuckles turned white. "Is that why you asked me to come here? So you can tell me how much I screwed up? Because believe me I'm not just going to sit here and take it. You played a part in what happened too."

"I never laid a finger on you!" She hissed. "I took it, and I tried and tried to help you because I thought it was my own fault. That the fact that I'd dragged you to the other side of the country had somehow entitled you to treat me like that!"

"You never asked Molly." His voice dropped, and he looked her in the eye for what was probably the first time. "You never asked what I thought, how I felt about anything. It was all about you and your career, about you doing something more with your life. What about me? I thought we were going to be a family and then you just kept pushing me away. I couldn't help it, I was angry and I resented you for it."

She bit her lip, forcing herself to take a breath before she said anything. She knew that part of what he was saying was true, she had asked a lot of him- and even though that would never excuse what he'd done, she needed to understand what had got him to that position.

"We could've been a family, Artan." Her voice dropped to hushed whisper. "Me, you and our baby. Don't you ever forget that you're the reason why that baby isn't here today."

"I was drunk, I didn't mean it." He said. "I know it's not an excuse, it was just the thought of you being with someone else, it made me so angry. It still does."

"You don't get to be angry." She snapped back. "You had your chance, I spent years of my life sacrificing myself to try and make you happy, even after everything you did to me and what did I get in return? So don't think that I'm going to let you ruin my chance at happiness with someone else."

"He's not right for you, he doesn't understand you like I do." Artan argued. "He'll get bored when he realises you're not going to sit around and be his trophy wife, and then what?"

"That's none of your business, in fact nothing I do has anything to do with you any more and the sooner you wrap your head around it the better." She snapped. "You can carry on trying to tell yourself that what happened was my fault if you like, whatever you need to do to help yourself live with what you did to me, but I swear to god if you come near me or Charles, or anywhere near my Mum and the kids I'll call the police. Got it?"

"But Molly, he doesn't know you!" He argued. "Look at him, some fancy army man with a big house and loads of money. He thinks he's better than people like us."

"He is better than you." She shrugged. "In so many ways that you'll never understand. He was there for me when I needed him, when you'd completely destroyed me. He helped me to realise that despite what you'd told me, I didn't deserve to be treated like that. So I owe him everything, I wouldn't even waste your breath trying to convince me otherwise." Her heart was pounding in her chest. Even now, the idea of speaking back to Artan like that horrified her. She had to keep reminding herself that they were in the middle of a packed coffee shop, and he might be stupid but he wasn't about to get himself sent to prison.

"Why did you get me to come here Molly? So you could preach to me about how fantastic this new man of yours is?" Artan sighed.

"Because I wanted to sit opposite you and look you in the eye." She said. "Because I wanted you to see that in spite of everything you did to me you didn't win, and I will be fine."

"Well." He sighed, his expression unreadable. "Congratulations I suppose?"

She stood up from the table, picking up her coat. "Goodbye Artan." She hesitated for a second by the side of the table. "I want to make it clear that this is it, you're never going to see me again." And with that she left before he had a chance to try and say anything else.


	12. Chapter 12

She had thought briefly about going to see her Mum and Dad while she was there, but she's ended up getting on the first train she could find back to Bath- which thankfully she hadn't had to wait too long for. Part of it was her desperation to get back and apologise to Charles and explain everything to him, and a lot of it was the need to put some physical distance between herself and Artan again. The thought of just running into him, especially after all that had been said, was more than a little unnerving.

When she'd turned her phone back on as she sat on the train she'd got countless text messages, missed calls and voicemails from Charles. She felt awful, and she really hoped that she hadn't ruined his day with Sam, but she also knew that if she'd told him what had happened he would never have let her go,and it might not have been the most sensible thing that she'd ever done going to meet Artan alone but it was what she'd needed to do to give herself some closure and allow her to start moving on properly.

He answered the phone before it even rang, and she knew he'd probably been sitting there staring at it.

"Molly! Are you okay?" He sounded so relieved and she felt another twinge of guilt in her stomach.

"I'm fine. I'm sorry if you were worried." She cringed. She wasn't used to this, having someone who actually cared and worried about her, it hadn't really crossed her mind just how worried he might've been.

"Where are you? What happened? I rang your mum and she said they weren't expecting you." He still sounded anxious and stressed.

"I'm on the train on the way back now. I'm fine okay, I promise. I think it might be better if we talk about it face to face though." She hesitated, she could feel herself getting anxious- the irrational fear that Charles might be angry at her for what she'd done still there, even though she knew he'd never lay a finger on her. Years of tiptoeing around and hoping Artan wouldn't find out had that kind of effect, it wasn't going to be easy to remember that no matter what she did Charles was never going to hurt her.

There was a long pause on the other end of the line. "What time is your train due in? I'll come and get you." She couldn't quite work out what his tone of voice was- disappointed, upset maybe?

"I'll be back in half an hour or so. You don't have to do that if you've got Sam there, I can get a cab." She said softly.

"No,no. It's okay. I've just dropped him back at Rebecca's I'm in the car now. I'll head for the station and see you there."

"Okay." She paused for a second, biting her lip. "I am sorry Charles, really."

"I'll see you in a little while okay?" He said.

"Okay." She agreed and then hung up the phone, staring out of the window.

The trouble with being stuck on the train was that it gave her too much time to think about what had been said and over analyse it. By the time the train pulled into the station she'd worked herself up to the point where she actually thought she might be sick. No matter how many times she told herself that Charles would understand, at least eventually if not right now, it just wouldn't go away.

Her heart sped up as she spotted him standing on the platform waiting for her, a deep frown on his forehead. He looked tired and worried, like he had when he'd visited her in the hospital all that time ago and she felt so guilty that she'd done this to him.

"Hi." He stepped forward awkwardly to greet her, as though her was going to hug her but then thought better of it. "Good trip?"

"Can we find somewhere to sit and talk for a minute before we go anywhere?" She asked. She needed to explain to him, and she didn't want to do it while she was driving but there was no way she could wait until they got back to his either.

He nodded, looking around them. The station was fairly empty. He pointed at the coffee shop just behind them. "I think that might be a good idea, let's go and get a drink and you can talk." He'd been distracted all day wondering where she was and what she was doing. His Mum had kept asking questions and he didn't know what to tell her when he didn't know anything himself. Had she left because of some kind of family emergency, or had she just woken up and realised that she didn't actually want to be with him at all. He'd been driving himself mad all day going round and round in circles in his head.

She followed after him, almost having to run to keep up with him as he marched over to the coffee shop. The thought almost made her smile, it reminded her of the very first few days she'd been with two section when she always seemed to be running to try and keep up with him and she'd been almost certain he was doing it on purpose to annoy her. Maybe she'd ask him one day.

There was an awkward silence as they walked in, she went and sat at a small table right on the far side away from the couple of other people in there. Charles had gone straight to the till to order without even asking her what she wanted, she was trying to decide if he was angry with her or just knew she wasn't going to have anything other than a cup of tea so hadn't bothered to ask.

He didn't say anything as he sat down opposite her, Just raising an eyebrow at her as he slid her cup of tea across the table towards her and waited for her to say something.

"I went to see Artan." She blurted out quickly, needing to get the words out before she stopped herself again for fear of his reaction.

"You did what?" His voice was calm, but forced. It was exactly how he had sounded when he'd come in to the med tent on your and Fingers had explained to him that she was cleaning up his face because he'd cut himself shaving nicks in to his eyebrows yet again. He was angry.

"I know you're angry but I needed to do it. I don't expect you to understand." She sighed.

"I'm not angry I'm…. okay I am a bit. What were you thinking? Why didn't you tell me!" His head was spinning, this was the last thing he'd been expecting.

"Because I knew you'd say no?" She raised an eyebrow at him. "He rang me this morning when you were making us a drink." She admitted.

"How has he even got your number? I thought you changed your phone?" Charles interjected.

She shrugged. "I don't know, I didn't ask and it doesn't really matter."

"Doesn't matter?" He was getting more and more wound up, she could see the way he was clenching the edge of the table.

"If you let me actually finish speaking then you might calm down and realise that you haven't actually got anything to freak out about." She rolled her eyes.

"Sorry I'll be quiet." He agreed sheepishly.

She couldn't help but smile a little at the guilty look on his face. "Anyway he rang me this morning and he was saying all this stuff about how I didn't deserve to just move on and be happy and all the rest of it and it got to me and I just panicked. I know I shouldn't have done and I should've just told you but I'm not used to this and I didn't know what to do- so I did the only thing I really know how to do and just ran away from the problem." The words all tumbled out so quickly she wondered if he could actually understand anything she was saying.

"Okay." He said slowly. "This still doesn't explain how you ended up on a train and going to see Artan."

"You'll be waiting a long time for an explanation for that because I'm not really sure how I go there." She joked but he didn't crack even the slightest smile. "I met him at the coffee shop at the station, I don't know I think maybe I just needed to finally confront him and get some answers, some closure so that I can finally move on and we can have a future."

He didn't miss what she'd said. They could have a future- there was still hope and that lightened his mood considerably. "Do I even want to know what he had to say?"

"Probably not." She admitted. "But it wasn't all bad, and I feel a lot better for it. I just needed to have him look me in the eye and tell me why."

He was quiet for a minute. "I'm not going to be able to pretend that I'm okay with it, anything could have happened Molly he's already nearly killed you once, if you'd told me I could've come with you and…"

She shook her head and cut him off. "No, you wouldn't have let me anywhere near him." She said. "And besides this was something I needed to do on my own to work out if I can really do this,"

"What do you mean by this?" He looked confused.

"Let myself be happy, be with you and be a family. This isn't something I've ever done before and you've got Sam to think about too. I don't want to be the one that screws this up because I can't be normal." She admitted.

He reached across the table and took her hands in his. "It's okay, you don't have to keep worrying about this. I'm not going to go anywhere unless you want me to, and Sam was gutted he didn't get to meet you today so I don't think you've got anything to worry about with him either. I just want you to be happy Molly. I can't say I'm thrilled you put yourself in danger and went to see Artan on your own but I can sort of understand why you did it."

"Thank you." She leant across the table to kiss him, finally. "For being so amazing and understanding with all of this."

"Well, you are pretty lucky to have me." He joked with a wink.

She rolled her eyes. "Now can you please take me home so we can go to bed." She caught the look on his face. "Get your mind out of the gutter Captain James I'm going to sleep I'm bloody knackered!"


	13. Chapter 13

Three months later

"Morning." He grinned at her as she rolled over to face him, his arms snaking around her and pulling her closer automatically. He loved waking up next to her every morning.

"What are you smirking at?" She rolled her eyes at him, but she couldn't hide her own grin as she stretched up to kiss him.

He laughed quietly, raising an eyebrow at her. "I'm not smirking at anything, I'm just happy! Is that a crime?"

"I'll allow it." She laughed. She still couldn't quite get used to this little bubble of happiness they seemed to be living in. The pessimist in her just kept waiting for something or someone to come around and ruin it for them. They'd found a little house, not that far from his parents, but far enough that Charles didn't keep complaining that his mother was smothering him, and they finally had a place to call their own. She loved coming home to him every night.

His fingers lazily traced the scar that ran up her shoulder and it sent a shiver up her spine. She'd catch him staring at it sometimes when he didn't think she was looking, then he'd go all quiet on her. It was the only visible reminder left of what Artan had done to her, but she knew it still bothered him. To her it was just a reminder that she was strong enough to have survived everything that had happened to her, and she'd come out of the other side of it with a man she loved.

She still sometimes wondered about Artan, where he was and what he was doing- or even what they might've been doing at that moment if things had been different. She hadn't heard from him at all since that day she'd met him at the train station, but that didn't stop her from wondering. She'd had a hard time explaining that one to Charles when her thoughts had just slipped out of her mouth one evening. He'd been upset, and maybe even a little bit angry, assuming that she meant that she wanted to go back to Artan.

She'd struggled to explain to him the way she felt towards Artan, after all she wasn't really sure she understood it herself. She knew that really she should hate him after everything that had happened between them, she was more than entitled he'd done to her over the years. Instead she just felt, well she wasn't really sure, sad maybe? She wouldn't change what she had with Charles for the world, but she guessed it maybe had something to do with the fact she'd never really be able to understand how her and Artan had ended up the way they had, she couldn't work out how the Artan she'd fallen in love with in the beginning had become the man Charles had rescued her from- and she knew she never really would.

"You're very quiet this morning." He commented, his breath warm in her ear as his hands wandered from the scar on her shoulder down her body.

She stretched and curled into him, kissing him again. "I'm just thinking."

"About what?" He paused, his lips almost touching hers.

"How lucky I am." She grinned, her hand coming up to his face and brushing the stubble on his chin, the light reflecting from the ring on her left hand.

"Ditto." That smirk was back on his face again. "Mrs James."

"Not yet." She reminded him playfully, but she loved the way it sounded when he said it. She couldn't wait to marry him. The next few weeks couldn't go quickly enough.

"You're not having second thoughts are you?" He was joking, but she could hear the slightest hint of worry in his voice. She'd got no idea why, there was no way she was ever going to leave him. She couldn't even begin to imagine her life without him.

"Only about two section and the free bar." She laughed. "I feel like that's something we might end up regretting."

"Oh don't worry, I've made it very clear to them that they'll be facing the full wrath of their favourite medic if they step even an inch out of line." He joked.

"Too bloody right, I ain't going to let that bunch of cockwombles ruin our day." She loved them all to bits, but every now and then they'd remind her what idiots they were- like when they'd had a housewarming party and Fingers had managed to pour half a glass of red wine on the carpet within about ten minutes of being there. Every day she walked past the rug they'd had to buy for the living room to cover the stain and she smiled at the memory of him frantically trying to clean it up before she noticed.

He didn't answer her, his lips finding hers instead and pulling her closer to him, her hands twisting into his hair. He loved waking up beside her every morning, especially now they had their own place and his mother didn't keep wandering in. Sam had been to stay a few times, and he'd fallen in love with Molly just as quickly as his father had. Even Rebecca had reluctantly warmed to her.

He was really, truly happy for the first time in years- especially now she'd agreed to marry him, and he couldn't wait to see what the future held for them.

* * *

 _Thank you so much to everyone who's read this, I really hope you've all enjoyed reading it as much as I've enjoyed writing it!_


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